Firings, ousters, hot water, and the arrogance of the Chinese foreign minister

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon media official, showed some mighty bad judgement.

Speaking of the media, when the Chinese foreign minister was asked about human rights during a press conference in Canada, he got all shirty: “Your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance… This is totally unacceptable.” QED. (证毕)

In other Francophone affairs, the French military vaguely “suspended” five soldiers for failing to act to protect people in the Central African Republic they were supposed to protect.

Finally, the commander of Navy’s Undersea Warfare Center (Newport Division) was scuppered on the “loss of confidence” rap.

Question: Is there a pattern of commanders of front-line units (and attacks subs and such) getting command of rear units (Newport, or say Stuttgart) and then getting nailed for being mean, rough, and having a hostile environment? (And yes, the Navy is be congratulated for being far more transparent about such moves than is the Army, which hides behind privacy laws.)

Photo credit: Peretz Partensky/Flickr